Literature / Sphere

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"[A] bunch of scientists find an alien spacecraft on the seabed and go inside it, and sure enough, there's a bloody great big sphere in there. "Let's call this the orb," one of them suggests, but he's soon shouted down."

The film begins with the discovery of a spacecraft deep within the southern Pacific Ocean. The thickness of coral growth on the spaceship suggests that it has been there for almost three hundred years. The United States Navy believes the spacecraft is alien in nature, sets up an underwater research facility at the site, and assigns a group of scientists and naval personnel to investigate further. They are:

Dr. Harry Adams (Jackson). A mathematician.

Captain Harold Barnes (Peter Coyote). Assigned to represent the Navy's interests and nominally in charge of the mission.

Dr. Elizabeth "Beth" Halperin ("Halpern" in the novel: see Adaptation Name Change) (Stone). A marine biologist.

The first thing the team establishes is that this ship is not alien but man-made. More specifically, American. But from a different century. The ship seems to have somehow time-traveled from the future, the last entry in the log being dated 06/21/43. It had apparently been on a mission to gather objects from around the galaxy to bring back to Earth for study. One of these objects is a large, perfect sphere in the cargo hold that eerily hovers above the ground and has no obvious function.

Soon the crew are contacted by a mysterious entity calling itself "Jerry," which they assume to be an alien and related somehow to the mysterious sphere. Before much more can be learned, a powerful typhoon suddenly arrives, trapping all below until it blows over. Within the following days, things go horribly wrong. Strange sea creatures menace the station, crew members die in a series of bizarre incidents and communications from "Jerry" have inexplicably become irrational and hostile. As the situation grows worse, the surviving team members make a shocking revelation as to the true nature of both "Jerry" and the sphere, but has it come too late to help them escape a living nightmare?

The film was a box office flop. It earned 37 million in the U.S and underperformed elsewhere, failing to even cover its budget. It ranked 58th for the year. Fans of Crichton noted many differences with the source novel, including the character's histories and personalities, while critics dismissed the rushed-production appearance and derivative plot; similarities were noted with Forbidden Planet, certain episodes of Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.

Alone with the Psycho: Towards the end of the book, Beth begins to act more and more irrational. Norman attributes this to the stress of the squid attacks and the anxiety of waiting for rescue. It's only when she plants explosives around the spacecraft and the habitat that he realizes she's snapped as a result of her entering the sphere. She accuses him of entering the sphere, trying to sedate and later asphyxiate him to prevent his fears from killing her, when in reality she's the nutty one.

Amazonian Beauty: In the novel, Dr. Beth Halpern happens to be a very attractive weightlifter. One of the other characters described her as "Mother Nature with muscles."

Applied Phlebotinum: Vocal regulators so that the audience isn't forced to listen to Munchkin talk the entire film.

Artistic License – Biology: In-Universe. The squids and jellyfish that appear around the Habitat are completely impossible, biology-wise (like all of them lacking reproductory organs). Turns out that they were made manifest from the fears of those who entered the sphere (Harry because of his immense fear to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Norman because of a bad experience when he was a boy with a jellyfish.

Because Destiny Says So: Harry believes that he and his colleagues are doomed to die because the crashed spaceship's computer logs indicate exactly when and why it crashed, but also that it was an unknown anomaly. Thus, Harry argues, if they make it back to the surface and report what they've learned, the ship won't crash because the mistake in the "future" will never happen. Since it still crashed, they must all have died in the "past." In the end, they Take a Third Option by choosing to use the Sphere's power to erase their memories of what happened, keeping themselves alive while preserving the integrity of the timeline.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe: What the Sphere gives people the power to do. It even works if the person is not aware they have this power, resulting in a lot of nightmares made real.

Closed Circle: A typhoon makes it impossible to leave the underwater enviroment for a week.

Dirty Coward: Averted with Tina Chan. Norman surmises that she abandoned Barnes during their fight with the giant squid, but he doesn't blame her one bit. One because it was Barnes and two, because it was, you know, a giant squid.

Failed a Spot Check: The scientists are so in awe of the alien sphere that Norman the psychologist has to point out its one, truly disturbing feature: it reflects its surroundings but not people.

First Contact Math: In the novel, this is the way Harry manages to first make meaningful contact with the mysterious alien presence.

First Contact Team: One of the objectives of "Project ULF" was the creation of the procedures for making one of these, plus providing the names for it. Part of the reason why Norman is nervous about the Navy's application of the Project material is that he borrowed some of it from famous sci-fi (although he did do some serious research on his own, showcasing the basis of some of his parameters. Most of it was the testing of various groups under stressful conditions, where many of them broke down almost immediately).

Ghost Ship: A deserted spacecraft, a mysterious sphere which grants uncontrollable psychic powers, and several monsters.

Green-Eyed Monster: Ted and Harry, which is mostly one-sided on Ted's part. Harry quietly tells Norman that he forgives him for everything but allowing Ted to be on the mission. "He's a pain in the ass."

Hard on Soft Science: Discussed and subverted in the novel. One of the Jerk Ass physicists asks what somebody from such a useless field as psychology is doing on the mission. Norman, the psychologist protagonist, points out what terrible people skills the average physicist has. It turns out the psychologist is the only one mentally stable enough to handle the nigh-omnipotence the titular sphere gives without killing everyone.

Helium Speech: This trope is used often in works set deep underwater and is played straight in the novel. Appears only briefly in the film.

Heroic R.R.O.D.: Beth suffers one when she realizes that she did indeed enter the Sphere.

I'll Kill You!: In the novel, Norman is the first to figure out "Jerry's secret." He then attempts to taunt Jerry. Suffice it to say, Jerry does not appreciate this.

Inferiority Superiority Complex: Many of the characters have it: Ted is distressed about not having made any ground-breaking discoveries before he reaches thirty (he believes that if he doesn't does by then, he will become too "over the hill" to be important on his field) and sees being part of the expedition as his great chance, Harry is a mathematical genius raised in the ghetto and absolutely loves being in the right (especially when he comes out of the sphere and his attitude becomes, in Norman's words, "manic"); Beth is a woman scientist and a marine biologist at that (a "double threat" of people overlooking her capabilities) and so is willing to be the one with the power (any power-sexual superiority, physical superiority, being the one with the answers, Reality Warper powers...) no matter the cost; Norman himself is particularly miffed that none of the other characters see his skill set as a psychologist to be of any help and Barnes not quite unsubtly implied to have been assigned to Project ULF and managing the first contact as a Reassignment To Antarctica and wishes for the mission to succeed so his superiors will see his worth.

Ice-Cream Koan: Many. Beth even Lampshades that Jerry is channeling Deepak Chopra. Beth herself comments that the Zen masters would say that the Sphere was a ball that wanted to be caught.

Inscrutable Aliens: The titular Sphere. All that the protagonists are sure of is that it's alien. The reasons for its creation, the reasons why it can bestow the abilities it can, or even whether it's alive or not, are never answered.

Harry. Growing up a math nerd in the ghetto made Harry very bitter, so he has a tendency to figure out everything before everyone else does, and mock everyone else's ideas.

Harry himself considers Ted this, telling Norman half-kiddingly that he doesn't forgive him for bringing Ted along, calling him a "pain in the ass."

I Was Young and Needed the Money: Almost quoted, word by word, as the reason Norman accepted the request to write "Project ULF"—a research report regarding the potential for first contact and the creation of a proper contact team plus the potential psychological impact and how it would influence everything. Norman keeps thinking of the project as "a joke" (which he did in professional earnest, but still), enjoys the house that the report paid for, and is pretty much near-horrified when he finds out that the Navy has been using it as gospel since they found the ship.

Japan Takes Over the World: The novel heavily implies a very heavy influence between the West and Japan in the time-lost spacecraft's own prior time line, which would be the future for the world at present in the book. Crichton would more fully explore this theme in his novel Rising Sun.

Jerkass: Barnes, who repeatedly lies to the team before they descend, sends Norman down even though he's beyond the age limit for deep sea habitation, and is only interested in the spacecraft for its potential as a weapon. He also possibly lies to his superiors to keep the team from returning to the surface, though, considering the Mind Screw elements began coming into play at the same time, it's possible he didn't. He also, rightly, calls out Beth for pressing buttons on the ship without warning anyone beforehand or really knowing what they'll do.

Just Ignore It: At the end of both the novel and the film, in order to get rid of the destructive abilities the namesake Sphere had given them, the protagonists agree to use their power to make themselves forget about the Sphere and all of their activities involving it. In the original novel, at least, this works because the Sphere, by its own admission, didn't grant them these abilities — they already had them, as do all human beings, but it took the Sphere to alter their awareness so they could use them. Yeah, it's kind of a weird book.

The Killer in Me: Not even Harry is aware that "Jerry" is an aspect of him—The monsters who kill the others are all effectively "Monsters from the Id." One of the main reasons so many people find this work reminiscent of Forbidden Planet.

Let Them Die: After entering the sphere and acquiring the Power, Norman decides to abandon Harry and Beth by taking the rescue sub to the surface without them. It's only when he realizes that he's manifesting his own worst fear, the fear that he doesn't actually give a fuck about anyone besides himself, that he turns back.

Never Found the Body: In the book, Barnes and Fletcher. Barnes never returns from his fight with the giant squid and Fletcher disappears during another squid attack on the habitat. All they find of hers is a single shoe near a blood splatter.

Noodle Incident: In the movie much is made about Norman having taken advantage of Beth when she was his patient. This event is never mentioned in the book.

Not of This Earth: A sample of the hull of a supposed alien ship is analyzed and found to be made of common elements, but they've been worked into a composite form that nobody yet knows how to duplicate.

Ocean Punk: The whole book occurs on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, an important part of the Project ULF report was the Lampshade Hanging that people assume (because of pop culture) that aliens that visit will automatically aim for someplace on land (like Washington D.C., if not elsewhere) when the ocean-vs.-land disposition on Earth makes it more possible that they will land on water (and may be even more suited to live on water) and there are many mentions in passing about how the conditions of the extreme depth are demanding to both human and machine (and even to something as simple as cooking).

Parrot Exposition: In the novel, Norman uses this as a psychological trick. Its purpose is to get him more info without requiring him to put much in. His conversation partner catches on soon enough.

Phlebotinum Analogy: In the novel, Ted explains gravity and black holes to Norman by using fruit on a table.

Product Placement: Blue Diamond nuts apparently will still be around in the next century.

Prophecy Twist: Trying to come up with one is a plot point, how do you plan an escape when the continued existence of a crashed ship is proof that you're going to fail?

Ragnarok-Proofing: For a spaceship that's been underwater for 300 years, it's still pretty sturdy. There even enough power left to run the computers and lights. This could be justified, having been apparently built of advanced alloys by its future American and Japanese creators.

Reality Warper: The Sphere, which causes people who go into it to gain this power. Of course, causes all sorts of havoc when people get it who are deathly afraid of giant squid, and so keep thinking about them. Interestingly, the only way to open the sphere up to get inside it is to visualize it opening.

Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: Once they gain reality warping powers, Norman, Beth, and Harry all lack the mental discipline to properly control them, which isn't helped by the fact that they don't even realize they possess the powers at first. Even as they start to get a handle on it, they decide they aren't responsible enough to keep their powers and use said power to erase their memories and the power itself.

Reset Button: Used in the film. In the novel it is attempted but the results are unclear. The book's ending is left ambiguous enough that one can infer that the Reset Button attempt only made things worse. The line at the very end where Norman says Beth is looking "lovely" could mean that she, with her inferiority complex and her hunger for power, deliberately held on to her abilities while the others forgot them — or it could imply that while they erased their memories of ever having had these powers, they failed to erase their ability to use them.The Film of the Book lacks this Karmic Twist Endingexcept for a second of Beth giving the camera a Kubrick Stare, but it doesn't provides anything else.

Rewind, Replay, Repeat: The book version of the story has a minor running sub-plot of Beth watching a particular part of a surveillance video where she and one of the Navy women are talking again and again. This is thought of at first as a sign of mental fatigue by protagonist Norman Johnson (because this conversation was one of the last times that said woman was seen alive, and everybody's running on empty at this point in time). In reality, Beth keeps watching the video again and again in order to determine that the titular Sphere, which was on a monitor on the background and opens at one point of the conversation, can be opened if you think about it hard enough because it runs on Clap Your Hands If You Believe.

Secret Test of Character: Discussed by Beth, Norman, and Harry. Norman theorizes that the Sphere is one of these, sent by an alien intelligence to determine humanity's suitability for contact — which they failed miserably. Harry disagrees, pointing out that that it's an alien device with an alien purpose, which is far more likely to have nothing whatsoever to do with the purpose of any race save its creators, and that the Sphere gives humans Reality Warper powers could be completely accidental. The analogy he uses is some kind of intelligent space-borne bacteria happening upon a human satellite and exploring it until it finds something that affects them in odd ways and ultimately kills many of them.

Norman: But why would someone build such a machine? Harry: That's the same question an intelligent bacterium would ask about a communications satellite: "Why would anyone build such a thing?”

Shaggy Dog Story: The main characters are investigating a most-likely alien ship, that landed on the bottom of the ocean. Inside they find a perfect sphere with strange markings on it, and after they've entered the Sphere, they can do stuff with the power of their minds! Which results in the underwater research facility being attacked by among other things, a giant squid. All but three of them die and at the end they figure out what's happening.

When they are finally rescued, they decide that the power to do anything with just your thoughts is too dangerous, so they decide to forget everything that's happened, explain the deaths of everyone by a leak or something and just by thinking this, it becomes reality. So basically, everything that happened in the entire book has become irrelevant in the last paragraph or so. Or was it? There is the implication that Beth didn't actually give up the power after all.

Sinister Geometry: The Sphere is a great example. It is enigmatic and scary by virtue of being so simple and featureless. It's nature is what you project on to it, which is perfect for the theme of the film. One character is very unnerved as he observes that, aside from the random pattern of grooves that criss-cross it, the rest of the surface seems to be perfectly spherical. Not only that:

Norman: What worries me is that it's reflecting everything but us. I hate to be the one non-scientist who picks this up, guys.

Spheroid Dropship: The mysterious sphere is revealed to be able of autonomous flight at the finale.

Took a Level in Badass: Norman does this over the course of the book. Becomes something a Brick Joke when, after earlier in the novel he feels in adequate next to military man Hal Barnes, Norman manages to cripple the giant squid by blowing off one of its tentacles while Barnes was unceremoniously killed offscreen by it.

Underwater Base: The research base the team uses is one of these. Called "the Habitat."

Victory-Guided Amnesia: Used in both the novel and the film by the final survivors. Doubles as a Shoot the Shaggy Dog. Though the ending of the novel is rather ambiguous. Beth seems to be more in control of her manifestations and may have decided to keep her power and use it to make the others forget. But it is hard to tell exactly what is going on because of the fact that the narrator gets/claims amnesia.

Norman Johnson: What happens when Jerry gets mad? Jerry: I WILL KILL YOU ALL. Norman Johnson: (regarding the "sphere" number cypher) Wait a minute. That number doesn't stands for "J".

Book only:

Jerry: STOP CALLING ME JERRY. THAT IS NOT MY NAME.''The cypher is recalculated to produce "HELLO. MY NAME IS HARRY." Beth: Your full name is Norman Harrison Johnson.

What the Hell, Hero?: Ted is astonished when everyone decides the mission is over because the ship isn't extra-terrestrial. "Just" an American / Japanese spaceship from the future.

Willfully Weak: The surviving characters will themselves into simply forgetting their Physical God status, thus losing it, on the off chance they go mad with power. See Reset Button for the ambiguous exception.

The Worm Guy: Norman, a psychologist carried off by the military to study aliens. To a lesser extent the other scientists. Crichton loved this trope and it features in several of his novels.

Wrench Wench: Both Edmunds and Fletcher at first, with Beth becoming one and keeping The Habitat working when the other two women are killed. Beth explains that the Navy equipment is either made to be easy to repair or extensively labeled with instructions (or with manuals at hand or easily accessible on the Habitat's computer), so it's not impossible for her to improvise this role.

Beth: What's the matter, Norman? Norman: It's a little hard to let go of. Something that could've been... this gift? The power to make your dreams come true. We're given the greatest gift in the history of mankind. We're given this magic ball. And it says "Imagine what you will and you can have it." That's an extraordinary gift, but we're so primitive we... we manifested the worst in us, because what we have inside us... is what we have inside of us, instead of the best of us. What does that say? Harry: We weren't ready, Norman. Norman:We have what's called an imagination. I mean, look what we're capable of. We can...(sighs)We're not ready.

You Can't Fight Fate: Harry invokes this. Because the ship encounters an "unknown event," it means no one on the ship of the future knew what was going to happen. Therefore, he reasons, they all die because that's the only way it could be an "unknown event." This leads to a haunting question delivered perfectly by Jackson with no irony whatsoever:

Harry: ...Are you afraid of dying, Norman?

Your Mind Makes It Real: Both the novel and the film, a device bestows this power on unwitting researchers sent to inspect a seemingly alien ship find on the ocean floor. Half are killed by nightmares emanating from themselves or someone else.

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